Lots to catch up on

Hi Everyone

January has been busy for me but lots of fun!  Although I haven't run classes, I have been involved in two major events to kick the year off:  a catalogue launch and a team training day.

My catalogue launch was great fun with 20 ladies coming along to my place to try out the new products.

 

As usual, I had a display of card ideas.

 



 

These were the cards we made.  It was fun to try different techniques and dies and folders.

 

 

We held a raffle with products generously donated by Stampin' Up!  Thanks to everyone who bought tickets and supported the Cancer Council.  We raised $175.

 

And we received a nice little surprise in the mail.  Our Cards for Troops have had a great response this year and I recently received this post card and magnet thanking us for our efforts!  How lovely is that!?

Don't forget that NOW is a great time to buy, host and join during Sale-a-Bration.  In my next post I'll tell you about our big team day which we held on Saturday, one of the great benefits of being part of my team!

Thanks for stopping by!

Anna

Recognise this card???

This card would look familiar to someone out there. 

And that's because you made it!   For Cards for Troops.  But it has been returned to us...with a message!

Dear Anna
My name is Keiran V____ and I am one of the officers in the Australian Contingent in Juba, South Sudan.
I wanted to thank you for your kind gesture of sending blank Christmas cards.  It measn a lot to myself and the other contingent members to know we are thought of and not forgotten at this time of year.
It will be a very different Christmas experience sharing with colleagues from the other United Nations countries supporting this mission.  I hope the Christmas goodwill will aslo be apparent within the local population.
The group of about 20 Australians will be sharing a Christmas BBQ roast and a Secret Santa so we should be able to have a fun Christmas day, even if we don't have family nearby.
I hope you have a very merry Christmas.  Thanks again for the cards.
Warmest regards,
Keiran V______

We have great response this year to our biggest output of cards!  We also received an email recently.

UNOFFICIAL Good Morning Anna,

My name is Petty Officer Jon S______ and I am currently deployed on the ANZAC Class Frigate, HMAS Arunta, in the Middle East Area of Operations.

We received a bag of mail yesterday and the awesome cards that you and your team have made. In my 15 years in the Navy I have never received anything like this from volunteers at home, and I have had a few Christmas's away.

What a fantastic gesture. It is 0530 in the morning and I am going to use some of your creations to send a Christmas message home.

I have 2 children, E_____ who is 8 and F____ who is 2. I'm sure they will enjoy going to the mailbox to find such a nice card for them.

Just knowing that there are people such as yourself makes these deployments worthwhile.

Once again, thanks very much for your lovely gifts. The crew on the ship will no doubt love sending these precious gifts home to their loved ones.

Jon


Thanks and regards,

Jon S______
Petty Officer Boatswain
HMAS Arunta
FFH 151

So thank you to all of you who have come to our working bees to make cards!  How lovely it is to work together on such a worthwhile cause!

Since you have done a lot of reading... how about you check out a Stampin' Up! video.  This is one of the Sale-a-Bration items that you could earn with each $90 you spend during Sale-a-Bration.
I'll have this one ready as a sample at my catalogue launch!

Thanks for stopping by!

Anna

A cards for troops thank you

Many of you contribute each year to the creation of many beautiful Christmas cards for Australian soldiers.

Some of our cards have made it to Sudan and we have received a thank you email.

Dear Anna,

                    Thank you so much for your generous gift of Christmas cards for myself and my fellow deployed Soldiers and Officers in Sudan.

 

It came as a surprise to find a delivery with such skilfully made cards for use to send our love to our families at this time of year.   I know it shall come as a surprise to my wife and family to get a card from me, as we usually find ourselves running out of time and missing delivery deadlines.  At present mail is taking up to two months to arrive from Australia, so I'm wondering (fingers crossed) that the return mail shall be quicker.

Merry Christmas to you and your family and thank you once again.

Kindest Regards,

Stephen

MAJOR

J5 Plans Officer

Operation ASLAN 

Cards for Troops Wrap Up! 600 plus 2

I have held my last sessions to create Christmas cards for Australian soldiers serving overseas.  Over two days at the start of the month, I had ladies help me at Robina Library as part of World Card Making Day.

And our final tally for this year is..........600 (and two) cards!

These cards then have to be matched with envelopes, bundled into groups of 10 and sent down to Randwick Barracks.

Here they are laid out on the table.  Of course the next step is to find willing volunteers...

 

 

Hubby and son to the rescue.  They circled this table over and over counting to ten.  I have captured one of many moments when my husband is stopped in his tracks, fascinated by the amazing designs and craftsmanship of each card:  "How did they do THAT?" and  "These ladies are amazing!" were just some of the exclamations uttered.

Here are all the packs laid out...

That's a lot of sandwich bags!!

While I had the box of cards sitting in my hallway, Anne, one of my customers visited with her two grandchildren.  I explained to the children what the cards were for and where they were going.   Not long after I received some more cards in the mail.

Dorian and Louisa had each made their own card to add to the box.

These are the outsides...

And the insides...

So these two special cards were given their own zip lock bag and packed into the box along with all the other cards.  I am sure they will bring a smile to someone's face.

Thanks everyone for the massive effort that has gone into creating these cards.  I even have a group in Perth who send cards over to add to the count!  Thanks so much Jill and co!

We have been doing this since 2011 and made a total of 2377 cards!

Thanks for stopping by!

Anna

Cards For Troops

Yesterday afternoon was a great reminder of the simple things we can do with paper crafting to help others.  We had another session to make cards for our soldiers.

We gather together to  make Christmas cards which are then bagged together in packs of 10 and sent Australian Soldiers serving overseas.

The ladies were generous in bringing a plate of food as a contribution.

All up I had 16 ladies helping over the course of two and a half hours.  Lots of activity goes on.  There are plenty of different jobs to do.

We made a total of 223 cards.

 

 

Margaret brought along 30 that she had made at home.

And we added 105 cards from Jill.  Jill is the mum of one of my team members and customers and she and her crafty friends make a bunch of cards every year.  These have come all the way from Perth.

That is a total of 358 cards!  Look at them all!

I am hoping to have one more session where we can make some Christmas cards for kids, and package all the cards into their ziplock bags!

To thank the ladies I made them each one of these...

We have been making Cards for Troops since 2011.  I am glad I blog each year as I was able to go back and tally up the number of cards we have made.

The grand total is 2135!!

That is a massive effort!  Thanks everyone for your contributions.

Thanks for stopping by!

Anna

Card For Troops - a thank you

I have received this card in the mail:

 

Look familiar?  If not a little fuzzy (sorry about that!)  One of you might have made this card in our Cards for Troops sessions - it has travelled all the way to the Middle East and has been sent back to us.

 

In case you can't make out the contents, it reads:

To the Lorikeet Stampers
My name is Hayley and I operate the Post Office over in the Middle East.  We would all like to thank you for the hand made Christmas cards.  They are absolutely beautiful.  I have your cards on display at the Post Office so everyone can see what a wonderful job you have done. 
The only problem people have is trying to pick out of the many cards.  They end up walking out with a handful cause they can't decide on a favourite.
Thanks you again and have a Merry Christmas and a happy new year from the postie in the Middle East.

It's so lovely to get a letter or two and I am always amazed at where our cards end up.

Thank you to everyone who helped to create the cards we sent off.  We will be having more working bees this year!

Thanks for stopping by!

Anna

Launch-a-rama

Hi Everyone

My goodness I am behind.  My launch was a week and a half ago and I have not done a follow up.

The theme was Christmas and the fundraising was for the National Heart Foundation.

Everyone had a fun time looking at the products from the Holiday Catalogue and having a play.  We had a play with the Sleigh Ride Edgelit dies.  This was one of the display cards using Tip Top Taupe, Mint Macaron and Pool Party.

This one used Mint Macaron and Whisper White.  Love the co-ordinating stamp set.

 Our make and take with this die were a little simpler.  Each lady made two of these - one for themselves and one for our collection for Australian soldiers.

 



As well as the make and takes, I asked all the ladies to put envelopes inside each of the cards we have made throughout the year for our soldiers, gather them into groups of ten and bag them.  Phew!  Saved me some time!  We have 300 cards ready to go.

And for the National Heart Foundation we raised $147!

Thanks everyone who came and for contributing to a worthy cause.

Anna

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

Good Deeds

Today I delivered our Footprint cards to the Gold Coast University Hospital.  The efforts of many ladies in helping with fundraising and hours of cutting and assembling meant that I was able to deliver

• footprint cards in pink and blue along with snail and embossing powder refills to replenish the existing box
• another complete box of footprint cards, Versamark ink and refill, snail and refills, heat gun, embossing powders and embossing buddy

We have the makings of another box of cards also but some assembly is still required.  Stay tuned for another working bee!

Let's hope that these cards take a long time to be used up, given their intended purpose but Lucinda has assured me that they are an important part of the grieving process and help to preserve memories in a treasured way.

Here is the lovely Lucinda taking delivery...and me...delivering.

And we have received another Cards For Troops letter:  a lovely handwritten note from Captain Kelly in Afghanistan.

"To the Lorikeet Stampers, I'd like to personally thank you for all your wonderful Christmas cards.  I was lucky enough to have made claim to some to be able to send home to family in Australia.  They were just beautiful and I certainly appreciate the effort and those of you who kindly thought of us here in Afghanistan."

The letter goes on to explain that cards were sent to relatives in Mackay, Sydney, Perth and Brisbane.  We always get a letter or two each year to thank us for the Christmas cards - how nice it is for the soldiers to show their appreciation.

Thanks to all of you who contribute to these causes.

Anna

This is Why We Do This!

I have had some lovely feedback recently that I want to share with you.

Cards for Troops!

A letter.....

Firstly a letter from Randwick Barracks where we send our cards for distribution.

 

On behalf of 39th Operational Support Battalion, thank you for taking the time to make cards for our soldiers serving overseas to send to their loved ones.  It means a lot to have your support and we greatly appreciate it.

 

Our soldiers work hard to help and protect people - receiving cards to send home when they are overseas is a big morale booster.

 

 

An email...from Bahrain!

 

Good Afternoon Anna,

 

On behalf of all the Royal Australian Navy members posted here in Bahrain at the present time, I would like to say a huge thank you for the Christmas cards we have received.

 

We are very grateful to have people like yourself providing us with cards to send home, making communication at Christmas time that little bit easier.

 

A little bit about myself:

 

I'm a Leading Seaman Maritime Logistics - Supply Chain sailor in the Royal Australian Navy, I'm 25 years old and am currently posted to the Maritime Operations Support Group in Bahrain. My primary job role is stores and mail for the Australian Ship which is on operation at this time in the Middle East region.

This involves receiving stores item and personal mail for ships company and organising freight drop offs to their next port of call, ensuring they receive their mail as soon as possible.

As you could imagine mail keeps their morale quite high, including Christmas cards to return home :)  

 

From all of us here, We wish you a Merry Christmas and a safe and happy New Year.

 

Keep up the great work

 

Thanks and regards,

 

Andy S

Leading Seaman (E6) Royal Australian Navy

 

Footprint Cards!

 

A letter from the Gold Coast Hospital....

 

 Thank you kindly for providing the footprint card packs. 

 

As mentioned earlier, Ericka - Neonate Intensive Care Nurse has taken responsibility for the use and distribution if the footprint kit and cards.....

 

Ericka encourages parents to create the footprint card in the family room located in the Neonatal Intensive care Unit (NICU).  This family room provides peace and privacy for recently  bereaved parents.

 

We believe that your cards have provided parents and families of sick babies and babies who have passed away with the opportunity to spend quality and private time with their babies and take a memory of their baby home with them.

 

Ericka has also shared the kit with the maternity unit at Gold Coast University Hospital.

 

On behalf of Ericka and the parents of NICU, I wish to thank you.

 

So thank you to all my customers and team who have donated money, goods and time to these worthy causes.  It's lovely that we have the opportunity to use what we love doing to help others. 

 

Let's do some more next year!

 

Thanks for stopping by!!

 

Anna



Some good deeds

I am so grateful for my group of customers and my team of demonstrators who pitch in for a cause.

In this past week I have been able to take a couple of big steps in our help towards other thanks to the efforts of many.

Firstly, cards for our Australian soldiers.  In my last post we were up to 260 cards.  Since then I have added a few and then Sue who couldn't come on the day contributed 20 more.  Thanks Sue!  This is one of her cards.  Love that clean and simple design!  (and I love Santa!)

 

And our total reached 290.  Angela, one of my fabulous team members then volunteered to make the last 10 so that we reached 300!!  Thanks Angela!!  Here are her lovely cards.

 

 

And here are our 300 cards boxed and ready to go!

And it doesn't end there - one of my team members has contacted me to say that her Perth based mum and crafty friends are contributing 150 more!!!

Thanks so much to everyone who contributed.  This is a fantastic cause and an easy one to get involved in.

Tune in for my next blog post to find out about my other big step (actually it involved a trip on the Light Rail!)

Thanks for stopping by!

Anna

Cards for our Soldiers

On Thursday I had a Cards for Troops workshop at my house.  Eight ladies attended and some who couldn't attend sent along cards and envelopes.

This is what we did....

Eight ladies made 160 cards!  And they looked like this:

And this:

And this:

And people like Maree who couldn't come sent along cards like this:

And this:

And Margaret who came ALSO brought cards like this:

And this: 

And this: (LOVE this beautiful giant bauble!)

Add the cards we made on Thursday and the cards that were made at a few other events and we have 260 cards! 

Thanks so much to everyone who has contributed.  More cards are welcome - I will be sending them off mid October.

Thanks for stopping by!

Anna